Better Block Houston: Hip Street Life Comes This Saturday

For 12 hours this Saturday, a lonely block near the Houston Community College main campus will be transformed into a bit of Portland, with bike lanes, street life and everything else that seems so elusive in Houston.

From 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., the intersection of Holman and LaBranch in Midtown will become a project of the Better Block people, who demonstrate how cities can get pedestrian-friendly, as they did in Dallas in the video linked above.

The aim is to build what the group calls a "complete street":

Complete Streets are streets for everyone. They are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities must be able to safely move along and across a complete street. Complete Streets make it easy to cross the street, walk to shops, and bicycle to work. They allow buses to run on time and make it safe for people to walk to and from train stations.

There will be live music, arts-and-craft stuff, and demonstrations of what the site could be.